The invention relates to a childproof and highly inert pouch for single-dose films containing active substance.
For general use, it is often necessary for medicines to be packaged individually as single doses. The reason for this is in particular that an individual package of this kind ensures that one defined dose is taken at the desired time and accidental administration of more than one dose is avoided.
This also protects the medicine from environmental influences. In containers that hold multiple doses, the lifetime of the contents as a whole is often adversely affected by the repeated opening that is needed to remove single doses. This adverse effect is all the more marked the greater the mechanical and chemical sensitivity of the medicine.
Furthermore, a requirement that often has to be met in order to ensure safety of medicines is the protection of untargeted population groups, particularly children, against accidental medication. A further factor in this connection is the natural curiosity shown by children, since these packages are often seen as asking to be opened and, consequently, the incitement to open the packages could end up in dangerous substances being exposed by children.
On the other hand, it is important that the package can be easily opened by the intended target group, in most cases older people. This problem is neatly described by the expression “child resistant, senior friendly”.
Film-shaped medicines represent a particular challenge, since the films are sensitive with respect to chemical loads (moisture, oxygen) and mechanical loads. Since film-shaped medicines generally have a large surface area, in order to be suitable for a pharmaceutical application, typically an oral application, and since a package must at all times enclose all the surfaces of the product it contains, it is necessary for a package for film-shaped medicaments to be relatively large.
In order to achieve the required protective effects, it is often necessary to use what are called high-barrier films, such as those commercially available in the form of the Sudafed PE film from Pfizer, for example. These have the disadvantage of being expensive, particularly since at least twice as much packaging material as packaged product has to be used for one package in order to fully enclose one item. It is therefore almost impossible to avoid an unfavourable ratio of packaging costs to product costs, and this has a negative impact on the price of the end product.
Childproof film packages for pharmaceutical, orally administered films are already known which afford the required chemical protection and are based on the use of a peelable pouch that is produced by heat sealing and is composed of two films, which each contain a thin aluminium layer. Such film packages sometimes contain a laterally applied cut which, however, does not cut through the pouch face itself. As a result, the package has to be folded through 90° at the middle of the cut in order to form a tearing nick in the side of the package. In this way, a tear can be made into the package in order to expose an opening aid for gripping, which then allows the two film parts to be pulled apart from each other.
This packaging principle has the disadvantage of being very expensive, since the time needed for producing such a package is quite long, and a relatively high outlay in terms of material is needed.
In addition, there are further technical solutions based on peelable films, paired and unpaired, which describe the optimization of the material outlay by optimal utilization of the film surface in the area of gripping tabs, as is described in WO 2010/025899 A1, for example.
All of the described solutions have in common that they are based on peelable films, i.e. the part of the film structure touching the product has to be peelable. Generally, these are always polyethylene-based peeling layers or similar compositions that have a relatively weak sealing seam strength, in order to be peelable.
These films have the disadvantage that they are often not inert with respect to migration of active substance, with the result that, over the course of the storage period, the active substances migrate into the package and are thus extracted from the medicine. In addition, the sealing seam strength is usually reduced by the fact that the sealed polymers are weakened by incorporation of other components that are not weldable. A side effect of such auxiliaries is reduced sealing-seam impermeability for gases such as water vapour and oxygen, which effect, over the course of the storage period and on account of the reduced storage stability of the package, can lead to problems due to water absorption of hygroscopic products, as well as to increased degradation of oxygen-sensitive products.
WO 2010/091813 A1 describes a pouch which is provided for film-shaped medicines and which, by means of a line of weakness, ensures tearability of the pouch. The combination of folds and tears on the line of weakness permits opening from one side of the package per line of weakness and thus permits access to the product from this side of the pouch.
In order to expose two or three sides of the product, two or three movement combinations of folding and tearing thus have to be performed along the lines of weakness. This can be seen as a nuisance, especially if there is a pressing need for medication, for example in cases of pain, in cases of craving, or in special emergency situations, or, if the required medication is not taken, can damage health or in the worst case lead to death.
The object of the present invention is to overcome the abovementioned disadvantages and to make available a childproof single-dose package which is based on sealed films and which permits single-motion opening in order to expose three sides of the product in one movement.
Preferred embodiments have the additional advantage that they require a minimal film consumption per dose, are inert with respect to migration of active substance and have sealing seams that do not need to satisfy any maximum sealing seam strength.